The Pistons are not getting Kevin Garnett. Not this off-season, at least.

Ideally, it would be a match made in heaven. The Pistons need that one missing piece, a superstar who can dominate on both ends of the court. The addition of Garnett, who averaged 23 points, 13 rebounds and six assists for Minnesota, would be enough to put the Pistons over the top.

If Garnett had been on their roster this season, the Pistons wouldn't just be in the NBA Finals instead of the Nets, they'd also have a real shot to win it all.

There's just one little, er, big problem -- $28 million. That's what Garnett is scheduled to make next season, the last year of his current contract with the Timberwolves. After next season, Garnett, who recently turned 27, will be an unrestricted free agent and can sign anywhere he pleases.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' selection of LeBron James with the No. 1 pick in next month's NBA draft is expected to mean the Timberwolves and Cavs will discuss a potential trade for Cleveland's Ricky Davis that might involve Minnesota's Wally Szczerbiak. Last summer, the Cavs matched a Wolves' offer sheet for Davis.

Mychal Thompson, the former Gophers basketball star who has served as the Timberwolves television analyst the past two seasons, has been offered the job as the Los Angeles Lakers radio analyst.

Thompson will meet with Lakers officials in the next few days to discuss the situation. "I just want to see what they are talking about," said Thompson, a former Laker. "You have to leave your options open. A smart man never closes his options."

The Lakers have yet to present Thompson with a financial offer, but the contract would be for three years. He has worked with one-year deals both of his seasons in Minnesota, but said he had no problem with that.

The Lakers opening was created because the team is going away from a simulcast and will have separate television and radio teams next season. The job appeals to Thompson because his family lives in Portland year-round and he would be able to see them more often if he spent the season based in L.A. instead of Minneapolis.

For Timberwolves observers, the NBA conference finals surely have a haunting quality. It is not just that the Wolves remain nowhere near the rarefied air of the NBA's final four.

It is the haunting presence of Terrell (Stop and Pop) Brandon.

Look at the Pistons, and you see the dogged Chauncey Billups, the guard who was only allowed to raise his profile in Minnesota because Brandon could not play.

Look at the Nets, and you see the incomparable Jason Kidd, the guard New Jersey was able to acquire only because it had the petulant but promising Stephon Marbury, whom the desperate Wolves had sent eastward as part of a three-way deal that landed Brandon in Minnesota.

This is the week the Bulls may be able to put together a deal for Kevin Garnett.

Word around the NBA is the Timberwolves are willing to trade Garnett, most likely to a large-market team that could meet his price as a free agent.

The Timberwolves don't want to let on they would consider a deal for their best player ever, but for the first time owner Glen Taylor recently opened the door to a deal, saying: "The only way we would probably trade him is if Kevin said that he really thought that was the best thing for him, or something like that. It would have to be built on something I couldn't even think of right now. We don't want to, and I don't think he would want to, but that would be the scenario, I suppose. I don't think I would necessarily accept that just because he said that. But that's a possibility."

Bobby Jackson contends his transformation from NBA wannabe to major award winner and contributor on a championship contender could have been nurtured anywhere -- Target Center, perhaps? -- but it is inside the Sacramento Kings' cubist training facility where he has measured the change in the smallest of denominations.

Shot by shot.

There, in a sprawling complex outfitted with conference rooms, laptop computers and the latest fitness machines on the inside and colored and textured like a basketball on the outside, Jackson has made himself winter and summer into the league's most valued reserve. He's also the pulse of a Kings team determined to experience a playoff epiphany this season.

The Timberwolves finished the season with a franchise-high 51 victories but failed to reach the second round of the playoffs for an NBA record seventh consecutive seasons. One week after his team's playoff run ended with a 4-2 series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, owner Glen Taylor answered questions about the team's future:

Q. After seven consecutive seasons of losing in the first round of the playoffs, some fans are wondering why vice president Kevin McHale and coach Flip Saunders haven't been fired. Why do you still believe in them?

The agent for Timberwolves point guard Terrell Brandon said Wednesday his client's retirement "is pretty much imminent."

"I think Terrell's probably not going to play, and that's pretty much what's going to happen, I presume,'' Bill Duffy said. "We don't believe anything other than that is going to be an option.''

Brandon hasn't played since February 2001, when he had surgery to repair fractured cartilage in his left knee. The Wolves were hoping he would return last fall, but aggressive rehabilitation hasn't gotten him even on the practice court.

Brandon, signed to a guaranteed contract that will pay him $11.2 million next season and $12 million in 2004-05, hasn't been with the team since the all-star break in February, and Duffy said Brandon is unlikely to play professionally again.

Duffy said he has not discussed the next step with the Wolves but said: "There may be a situation where they end up trading Terrell's contract. That's probably something that they're thinking, and we probably wouldn't prevent them from doing that."

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor doesn't want to start next season without having Kevin Garnett signed to a contract extension. But if he doesn't, Taylor said, that doesn't mean he'll trade his star player.

"The only way we would probably trade him is if Kevin said that he really thought that was the best thing for him, or something like that,'' Taylor said. "It would have to be built on something I couldn't even think of right now. We don't want to, and I don't think he would want to, but that would be the scenario, I suppose.

"I don't think I would necessarily accept that just because he said that. But that's a possibility.''

Garnett has one season left on his record-setting six-year, $126 million deal and is eligible for an extension beginning at $29.4 million ? although the sides last summer were negotiating a pay cut. If Garnett does not sign an extension, he would become an unrestricted free agent after next season and eligible to sign with any team.

The Wolves placed rookie guard Igor Rakocevic on waivers Tuesday. Had they not cut him five days or fewer after their season ended, he would have been guaranteed $563,679 next season.

"We like Igor, and we would love to have him in our summer league and have him come back,'' McHale said. "But right now we have a lot of free agents and a lot of stuff, and we're trying to do a lot of different things.''

Rakocevic, the Wolves' second-round draft pick in 2000, averaged 1.9 points and 5.8 minutes in 42 games.